Schizophrenia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)... When you hear these words what's the first thing you think of? Some may think of a person they know, a veteran, or even themselves. But a large portion of you reading this will think of this: a crazy person in an insane asylum.
Something I bet no one took a second to think about is the thing these diseases have in common. They are all mental illnesses.
Now, mental illness does NOT mean insanity. It does not mean a person is crazy, so why is that the negative stigma in society?
Well, to be completely blunt, we have become ignorant and uneducated. We are too quick to pass judgment.
In 2014 alone, 43.6 million people (aged 18 or older) suffered from a form of mental disorder. That means 43.6 million people were looked at as crazy. 43.6 million people were suffering and in desperate need of help. Can you honestly say you'd stick around to help someone who was mentally ill?
We created this negative stigma.
Those who have delusions and hallucinations were identified as crazy or insane... by US. We have treated these mental illnesses as abnormal and strange.
Do me a favor. Take a step back and think. Why do we see breast cancer as being more serious than depression? Why do we find that schizophrenia is less severe than a brain tumor? Why are those with a mental illness looked at as anything less than a sick individual?
When compared to something like cancer, a mental illness is belittled and the severity is broken down. Would you ever tell someone that they were making up the symptoms of cancer? I think not.
So why do we do it when it comes to a mental illness?
We need to start education ourselves on how mental illnesses take tolls on individuals. Not only those who actually suffer from the disorder but also everyone around them. We need to stop discrediting the severity of mental illnesses and realize that these people suffering are just as important in our growing society.
Take a minute and stop being ignorant. Make a difference and help turn the tables on this negative stigma we've created. They're people too, not a problem.
